Ex-con Guilty In Rape Try Attack Occurred Soon After Release

A jury deliberated only 20 minutes on Tuesday before declaring serial rapist John Fogleman guilty of six charges related to an attempted rape in 1989, shortly after he was released from prison.

Fogleman, 30, chewed gum and remained calm during the reading of the verdict, which could extend his prison sentence to ``a couple hundred years,`` Assistant Public Defender Howard Finkelstein said.

Fogleman has been behind bars continuously since he was 15 on rape convictions, except for two months in 1989. He attacked at least two women while he was free.

In December, Fogleman received five consecutive life sentences for raping a Hollywood woman on Dec. 13, 1989.

Finkelstein said he expects retired Circuit Judge John G. Ferris to give Fogleman more life sentences for Tuesday`s conviction for an attack on a Fort Lauderdale woman on Dec. 12, 1989.

``I assume he`s going to be getting a few more of those,`` Finkelstein said after the verdict.

First convicted of rape in 1976, Fogleman has spent half his life in prison. He received a 30-year prison sentence in 1977 for rape, when he was 15, and was released in 1989, when he was 27.

Since the 1989 arrests, Fogleman has been in the Broward County Jail.

Assistant State Attorney Vicki Seiler, who has been prosecuting Fogleman since his latest arrests, said the verdict was a relief not just because of the guilty verdict, but also because Fogleman`s court battles are almost over.

Fogleman also faces charges on extortion and battery of a law enforcement officer, but Finkelstein said he expects to reach a plea bargain on them.

Finkelstein defended Fogleman on the grounds that he was insane when he abducted a Hollywood woman from a parking lot and tried to rape her in front of her 2 1/2-year-old son.

FOR THE RECORD - ******UNPUBLISHED CORRECTION: The name of John Robert Fogelman is misspelled in this article ******

He focused on Fogleman`s background: The woman Fogleman thought was his sister was actually his mother; he was sexually abused as a child; and he did not learn to talk until he was 4. Finkelstein also said Fogleman was the product of incest.

``Sickness breeds sickness,`` he said. ``Insanity is crazy, and crazy is nuts, and he is friggin` nuts.``

Seiler called Fogleman a ``twisted, sick person`` but said there was no evidence showing he did not know the difference between right and wrong when he attacked the Hollywood woman.

The prosecutor said Fogleman took back roads to be secretive, gave the woman a false name, wiped the car`s steering wheel and dashboard to erase fingerprints and made other moves proving that he did not want to get caught and knew he was doing wrong.

Seiler also cited testimony by a sheriff`s deputy who said that Fogleman told him in jail that he was ``copping an insanity plea`` in the trial. Last week, Fogleman pushed over the defendant`s table in a courtroom temper tantrum, prompting Ferris to wonder whether it was staged.